THEY say Sarah Hughes’ gold medal-winning performance at the Winter Olympics has inspired legions of nimble young girls to take up figure skating.

Step aside, kiddies. Here comes a 27-year-old newspaper reporter who hasn’t set foot on ice in a dozen years.

Dreaming of triple lutzes and Salchows – whatever those are – I decided to head for the Ice House, the famed state-of-the-art rink in Hackensack, N.J., where Hughes trained for the past three years.

Maybe some of the magic would rub off on me. Maybe I would return with an ice skate through my forehead. I was prepared for anything.

If you catch a bus at the Port Authority Terminal, Hackensack is about an hour away.

Here’s a tip for New Yorkers: the city is a jagged maze of buildings and streets. The bus drops you off in the middle of a street, and you must find your way past the buildings, walk under an overpass and go past a tire shop and a bowling alley.

Outside a yellow brick building, a school bus full of rowdy teenage boys is a tip that you’ve found the Ice House.

Built primarily because of the many hockey leagues in the area, the Ice House is now the place to go for professional skaters, thanks to Hughes. Nine other Salt Lake City competitors trained there, too, including winning Russian couple Anton Sikharulidze and Yelena Berezhnaya.

I’m paired up with an assistant skating coach, Kim Murphy. I have to start with the basics: tying the shoelaces on my rental skates, which is harder than it sounds.

The Ice House is known for its international team of coaches, and Murphy is no slouch. She’s never coached Hughes, but she’s met the gold medalist – enough to impress me.

I stepped on the ice and struggled to stay upright like one of those wobbly fledglings you see in National Geographic specials. Each foot wandered off in a different direction.

The younger you are, the easier it is to learn how to skate, Kim says, promising I’ll be able to learn my first spin in about five weeks.

As I’m practicing my falls and praying I can hail a ride on the Zamboni, Lena Grotticelli, a 13-year-old junior skater in the North Atlantic competition, glides by in a swirl of stunning, seemingly innate grace.

Could this kid be the Sarah Hughes of the 2006 games?

I’m no expert – but you can bet I’ll tell everyone we skated together back in Jersey.

To get to the Ice House: take the #165 New Jersey Transit express bus at Port Authority. $5.10 round trip. Group lessons are $150 for a nine-week course.